Looking into the future.(viewpoint industrial sector)

Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. In 1989, as part of its 75th anniversary issue, CW made several predictions about the industry in the 21st century--with varying degrees of accuracy. We correctly predicted the advent of biotechnology in the drug and ag industries, but not for its applications in industrial chemistry; the rise of advanced materials, but not nanotechnology; the renewed interest in coal as a source of chemicals, but not the natural gas shortage in the U.S.; the advent of advanced distributed process controls, but not of business process software.

For this special issue, CW has invited a number of CEOs and other industry experts to …